Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan companies approved to buy up to $9 billion from the central bank prior to the country’s devaluation will have to pay the new weaker rate, boosting their costs by 20 percent, Banco Santander SA said.

The firms will receive dollars at 2.6 bolivars per dollar under the revised government currency controls law issued yesterday, after having requests approved at 2.15, said Milton Guzman, chief of economic research at Santander’s brokerage in Caracas. That higher cost for the companies would total 4.1 billion bolivars based on the $9 billion backlog estimate.

“These companies will take an exchange loss of about 20 percent,” Guzman said in an interview.

U.S. companies including Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Owens-Illinois Inc. wrote off millions of dollars following the devaluation after accumulating large amounts of cash in local currency due to delays in government dollar sales last year. Many companies began to repatriate dividends at the parallel exchange rate which traded today at 6.3 per dollar.

Companies in Venezuela waiting for approvals for imports will have their orders from last year met at 2.6 bolivars. The repatriation of dividends isn’t specified in the law, said Asdrubal Oliveros, a director at Caracas-based consulting firm Ecoanalitica.

Dividend Issue

“These changes brings some clarity,” Oliveros said in a telephone interview. “But we still don’t know at what rate companies can repatriate dividends built up from the last few years. That’s the last detail to be defined.”

President Hugo Chavez devalued the bolivar this month as much as 50 percent for the first time since 2005 and created a multitiered exchange system with two official rates of 2.6 and 4.3 per dollar.

Companies and individuals that don’t receive government approval to buy dollars at the official rates turn to the unregulated market.

A spokesman at the foreign exchange administration, known as Cadivi, declined to comment on the report when contacted by Bloomberg News. A central bank spokesman didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 29, 2010 13:40 EST